Positively surprised

The location of this hotel is quite good when it comes to ease of reaching it by public transport when arriving at Gare de Lyon. It's easily served by 3 metro lines: Bastille on Line 1, Chemin Vert on Line 8 and Bréguet-Sabin on Line 5. The easiest and closest one is Line 5, then 8 and finally line 1. If you arrive with Line 1, I would recomment getting out at Bastill and walk to the hotel from there. The change from Line 1 to 5 or 8 takes forever. You might as well just get out on line 1 and walk.

As the name says, it's near place de la Bastille, so pretty much in the super center, near the Marais as well. But it's a bit off the big roads so it's fairly quiet.

There's a parking attached to the building with direct lift access.

I did online check-in on the app. No upgrade provided and no recognition by the front desk when they greeted me. But super friendly. I speak French so I don't know how their level of English is. For the upgrade, I wasn't expecting much and I checked before arriving, they were out of the rooms with balcony/terrasse. They only had family rooms left.

As a Platinum member, I was offered the choice of points or breakfast (not a F&B cash value voucher, you just get the breakfast for free). I picked the breakfast.

This is where I was pleasantly surprised. The room description said 11m2, so i wasn't expecting much. The reviews here also mentioned the tiny rooms. But when I entered, it felt quite nice, fairly ok size for the price and for a "budget" hotel in Paris.

I had room 228, which is one of those "strange" rooms that are accessed via an outdoors path. Only 4 rooms on each floor (according to the floor plan, I didn't visit each floor) are accessed that way. So if it rains or it's windy, you get right into that when you exit your room.... On my floor, it was rooms 228 through 231.

My room was right next to the door that leads back to the hotel corridors and well.... it slams quite loudly whenever people go through it. And the room window is facing the passage, so it's a bit weird to have people walking past your room often. It's like a motel room. So I kept my thick curtain closed as soon as I was in the room. If you're a light sleeper, room x28 might not be the best. Beware.

The room was an acceptable size, tiny "desk" with 2 foldable stools, one single couch and the queen size bed.
Window can be opened ajar, but then again, it's weird to have it opened, knowing people walk past it. I can see however how rooms 204 or 222 can be quite tiny.

The bathroom was big, really big for a Moxy I thought. The water pressure is ok but not amazing. Good hot water. But again the weird design of the shower means that you flood your floor when you take a shower, unless you are careful while in it....

I didn't notice any light issue. All lights could be totally turned off. The only light source (a bit annoying still) was from the temperature control console.... blue light, stays on unless you turn the ventilation off. And the room is quite warm, even in this season, not sure why they heat them so much, same goes with the lobby. I overhead another guest complain about it in the elevator as well.

Breakfast was also surprisingly good. Nice options of a Moxy. Pastries, danish, cereals, fruits, yoghurts, compotes,  coldcuts, cheeses, breads and more were offered. There was some scrambled eggs as well I think.

I think it's a bit of a hit and miss when it comes to which room you're getting. I was lucky to get one slightly bigger room. However, for €125 per night, you can't complain too much. Try one of those Ibis or worse, stand alone/private hotels for about the same price... tiny tiny rooms, where you can just walk around the bed, bed sound proofing etc...

At this rate, I would definitely stay again.